Football tactics are diverse, but the following are some of the most essential in the advancement of the game.
When football was initially played, it was not such a tactical sport; however, over time, footballers and managers have changed the way they tackle the complex game. As soccer is such a fluid and fast-moving sport, there is room for variation and personilisation to methods and style. The only inflexible thing about soccer are that you actually have eleven footballers on the pitch, with one goalkeeper. Football tactics in the very early days were quite attack oriented, with formations lining up with only 2 defenders and the rest upfront or sitting in midfield. The players back in the nineteenth century also seldom passed the ball, they would basically just try and dribble around the opponent, with teammates backing up in case the ball was lost. At some point in the 19th century, players started to warm to the concept of passing the ball to teammates and realized how efficient it is at cutting open theopponent's defences. The AC Milan owner would anticipate to see a passing game from the club, as using the old style of the game would definitely not succeed. The transformations to the way folks played in the nineteenth century meant that soccer defense approaches had to be more and more defined and well trained.
Throughout the 1970’s, there was one nation that helped to bring about one of the most visually pleasing kinds of soccer. The Netherlands helped to establish a football game known as total soccer, and the relatively hyperbolic sounding name is actually rather accurate. The players would all move between each other’s positions seamlessly; each player was expected to take on different roles and be able to fit into a variety of positions. Soccer positions were normally seen as structurally rigid, but this was modified by the well-known Dutch club and national team during the 1970’s. The Sheffield United owner’s team is basically a team that takes some ideas from total football, and some pundits and fans have pointed out that their team plays in a fluid fashion. It's unexpected for a newly promoted team to take on a style so challenging to master.
So many clubs today play with four defenders, it has practically become the standard formation, which is one thing the Liverpool owner would notice in the clubs' set up. However, the formation was actually very rarely used in the early part of the 20th century. Four footballers across the backline was developed by a well-known Hungarian national club, which used positional tactics incredibly well to confuse and out-manoeuvre the opposition. Teams adopted this soccer formation immediately after the Hungarian team’s success, and clubs continue to adopt this formation nearly 100 years after. The benefit of the system is it gives width the defensive but also a platform from which to strike.